My thoughts were, ‘if I kill myself tonight, then my Mum will look after the children.’

Chatting with Tracy Bevan in the McGrath Foundation’s Sydney headquarters, it’s difficult to imagine someone less likely to consider suicide. But Tracy, suffering from post-natal depression, hit an all-too-common low point. Having come through that moment in her life, Tracy speaks openly about it in an effort to shine the spotlight on the issue,

“When I repeat those thoughts today, that just sounds like somebody else speaking,” Tracy explains, “talking about post-natal depression, I hoped that by sharing, someday it might help somebody. Talking about my life and experiences makes those experiences not feel like they’re secret or dark or that we shouldn’t speak about them.”

“I was born to help people.”

Tracy’s role as the ambassador and Director of the McGrath Foundation began in 2005, when she worked as General Manager alongside her great friend, Jane McGrath. In those early days, it was just Tracy and Jane. Having been diagnosed with breast cancer, Jane asked Tracy to assist in setting up a charity to give back to Australian families, going through what Jane herself was going through. When Jane passed away, it had a profound impact on Tracy. But she believes talking about and sharing your experiences – good or bad – can help others. Now, Tracy travels around Australia, explaining how dollars raised for the McGrath Foundation make a real difference in peoples’ lives and how money raised is spent on the Foundation’s Breast Care Nurse Program – which currently employs over 130 Breast Care Nurses Australia wide.

“I’ve always turned to fitness to help me get through times.”

Tracy is a big believer that being active is actually a very powerful tool to help with mental health. However, like many of us, she hasn’t always found it easy to fit it in with her life. Not only because her busy schedule meant she couldn’t, but because she felt as though she shouldn’t,

“Taking time for myself, I felt guilty. Because as a mother, a wife or someone with a job, there’s always something to do,” Tracy reflects, “but as soon as I switched that thought of exercise being something I have to do to be healthy, to it being something that I choose to do to have time on my own and it’s also going to benefit me, I felt a lot better about working out.”

Tracy also advocates putting less pressure on yourself when it comes to the type of exercise you undertake. After all, not everybody can train to run a marathon, “It’s just about putting your trainers on and walking out that door. If you’ve gotten that far, the rest is easy. Fitness for me means spending time – whether walking, going to the gym, having a swim – and not feeling guilty.”

***

 At The Athlete’s Foot we GIVE A FIT about feet. But we also GIVE A FIT about great causes. That’s why we are proudly supporting the McGrath Foundation.

From TUESDAY 20^th AUGUST – MONDAY 2^nd SEPTEMBER we will be donating $5 from every pair of women’s running shoes sold, to help fund McGrath Breast Care Nurses.

SHOP WOMENS RUNNING NOW